DatacenterDynamics Research has published details of global data center growth in an extract from its forthcoming DatacenterDynamics Industry Census 2011. Available for free download, the market growth report describes a landscape, which is hallmarked by substantial levels of growth. The survey sample’s current investment of about $30 billion during 2010 – 11 is projected to rise by over 16 percent to $35 billion in the coming 12 months.

Within the context of the census, growth is taken to include the construction of new facilities, the extension and upgrade of existing facilities, and the increased use of outsourced data center services. The DatacenterDynamics Industry Census 2011 is the most extensive and the most comprehensive independent research into the critical facilities which are said to be essential resources for future economic prospects.

Nick Parfitt, DatacenterDynamics Research director, said, “The world is becoming more IT dependent. Even in developed markets, the expansion of IT and internet use in business, government, and socially has created a perfect storm for more servers and storage, and more data centers to power, cool, and house them. The perception is without question that data centers are the best way of ensuring the availability and reliability of IT services and the machines to deliver them.”

Fieldwork for the DatacenterDynamics Industry Census 2011 was conducted during June and July. A total of 5,400 completed surveys provide an in-depth analysis of data center operators and users who have under their control almost 100,000 data centers, accommodating 7.7 million equipment racks and consuming 31GW of energy.

Published today, the market growth report shows that in pure financial terms, data center investment will be highest during 2012 in the western United States ($3.5bn), closely followed by the UK ($3.35bn) and China ($3.1bn). In terms of percentage growth in data center investment, South East Asia significantly outstrips other ranked geographies at 118 percent.

When markets are analysed and ranked by at percentage growth in number of data centers, Turkey (60 percent), Brazil (45 percent) and Columbia (40 percent) exhibit the most dynamic growth characteristics, although starting from a low installed base number. However, the top 17 geographies which incorporates both developed and less developed data center economies, exhibit double-digit growth. More details can be found online at www.datacenterdynamics.com/research.

Data Center Development Index (DCDi) Introduced To Characterise Markets
Designed as an aid to discriminating between the characteristics of markets (e.g., economic units investigated by the census), DatacenterDynamics Research has announced the Data Center Development Index, or DCDi. The index provides a relative measure between markets to give an indication of the size and types of data center stock, how these are distributed between industrial sectors and anticipated growth over the next 12 months in the number of data centers, the number of racks, and total power use.

Expressed as a whole number, the calculation is based on five metrics from the census including Sector Scope and Influence, Sector Activity, Resource Base, Facility Profile and Sector Context, together with external inputs such as GDP data from the World Bank. DCDi will be used by DatacenterDynamics Research to track the development of data center resources as markets evolve and change.